The original Apple iBooks app design contained the digital rendering of a wooden bookcase. The design provided users new to the idea of a digital library a familiar interface to navigate. Designers during the computer and digital revolutions relied heavily on this concept known as skeuomorphism when building their application interfaces.

Skeuomorphism is a technique where new versions borrow elements or cues from previous ones in order to retain familiarity. Other examples include the envelope on your email application icon or the floppy disk on your computer’s save button. Although both the envelope and floppy disk icons have persisted, the wooden bookcase gave way to a flat, minimalistic design as users became more familiar with the layout of modern digital applications.

Skeuomorphism is a relatively modern term but the concept has existed across the ages. Early automobiles were almost exact replicas of horse drawn carriages. Steering was achieved by levers called tillers that had previously existed in carriages. Eventually, as the automobiles evolved, tillers were replaced by steering wheels. The temporary use of tillers allowed drivers to adapt more quickly to the new vehicles.

The first generation of a new technology often improves or iterates on what already exists to foster adoption. The more consequential changes happen when the features or structures that helped foster adoption no longer need to exist. Or more importantly, limit what can exist.

I wrote earlier this year in Time Machines about how software interfaces and job roles are likely categories to go the way of the tiller. AI adoption has been rapid compared to other innovations due to its natural language interface and the fact that users could access it using existing hardware. AI has quickly moved beyond text based chat bots. Voice interaction has improved dramatically and models can create data views and images on the fly.

The advent of accessible agents like Grok Bot, Muse and Dots are also providing test cases for people to reorganize work. Most still organize their agents in heirarchical or role based structures, such as assigning a CEO or personal assistant agent. However, you are beginning to see more people organize them around functions, outputs, and tasks.

Why did the tiller give way to the steering wheel? Automobiles became more powerful and faster than horse drawn carriages. The tiller, while familiar, was limiting the user’s ability to harness the full capabilities of the new technology.

How can we find the tillers in our own businesses?

The Tiller Test framework uses three simple questions to help you examine the areas of your business that could be re-imagined.

I’ll walk you through the example using financial reporting.

Always start with the problem and outcome first. For financial reporting, you might answer this by saying, “Financial reporting is used to file my tax returns.” Although that is true, the ultimate goal of financial reports are to provide you with the ability to make better decisions.

You want to become crystal clear on the real problems the activities or functions within your business ultimately solve.

It’s also not enough to say financial reports help you make better decisions. You need to get specific on what kind of decisions. In the financial realm, I could list dozens including hiring, expansion, pricing, purchasing, etc.

For whatever you’re trying to accomplish, get specific. It will matter as you will see.

Why do almost all companies close their books monthly? Financial data historically required time-consuming collection, reconciliation, and interpretation. Organizing reporting around periodic cycles made sense. It’s also true that there are often not enough changes within a month or even across months to justify doing it faster.

That might be true for certain decisions, such as hiring. But what about pricing? What would be true for your business? If you’re undergoing rapid growth, you might want more real-time data before hiring the next person, updating your pricing, or purchasing more inventory.

The point of this question is to identify activities and functions that exist mostly due to previous constraints. Does most of your company’s decision making revolve around your monthly close simply because that is when the data is available?

How would those processes and functions change or even continue to exist if other realities were possible.

Traditional decision making from financial reporting followed a time-delayed linear loop; activities were recorded, the monthly close occurred, a report is generated, and then decisions are made.

What could the future look like?

Future financial reporting could mean real-time insights and feedback.

It’s not just about asking what changes, but what is possible as a result of those changes?

Assume real-time or even daily financial closes become reality. What are the implications?

What decisions can we now make or make with better judgement as a result?

You might be thinking, “It’s not like I’m going to hire and fire people on a daily basis.” True, but what if you’re business is seasonal? Or what if you want to better plan for how to staff during busier hours, days, weeks, or for upcoming jobs?

You also might be thinking, “It’s not like I’m going to start changing my prices on the hour.”

Well, grocery stores are already installing digital price tags. Of course, they reduce the labor of switching out physical tags but they also allow the store to easily reduce prices on stalled inventory or expiring perishable goods. There are even fears of the stores using dynamic pricing from profiling you or during surge times such as right after traditional work hours.

New technologies don’t simply make old processes more efficient or eliminate the need to do them entirely. They open up possibilities that were previously unrealizable.

The greatest mistake businesses may make with AI isn't simply preserving structures that have become unnecessary. It's allowing those structures to limit their imagination of what's now possible.

It is also a blind spot for society as a whole, who often only focus on what AI might eliminate and not what the resulting productivity could create.

The steering wheel replaced the tiller because the car could go faster and required a better handling mechanism. A car’s additional speed and performance also created the need for improved safety.

Stronger structural components, better braking systems, and tires and wheels were also required to accommodate the improved engine performance. Think of the industries and jobs that came about simply from the innovation of the automobile from the horse drawn carriage.

AI might make the existing activities in your business or job more efficient, but are those improvements skeuomorphic? Do they exist to help you transition from the past while limiting your ability to optimize for the future?

Don’t risk you or your business going the way of the horse and buggy.

Use The Tiller Test to reimagine it thriving in the new world.

My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future. 

Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.